


Nighttime Waltz

by engagemythrusters



Category: Torchwood
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Nighttime
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-12
Updated: 2019-06-12
Packaged: 2020-05-01 19:31:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,031
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19184197
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/engagemythrusters/pseuds/engagemythrusters
Summary: Jack is a different person at night, but not for the reasons people expect.





	Nighttime Waltz

Ianto jolts awake. He's not sure if it's a hypnic jerk or whatever, and for a moment, he's too muddled to care. He rolls over, expecting to press up against a warm body, but the bed beside him is empty. He thinks it's dismay that settles in as his brain wakes up more, but it could easily be something else, though. Disappointment that the bed isn't warm enough anymore, perhaps. Yeah. That's probably it. 

There's no point in trying to fall asleep again. He's tired, of course, so tired that he wants nothing more than to drift off again, but it's not going to happen. Not for a while, at least. So, he settles in and listens for the tell-tale signs of Jack doing whatever Jack does at... two twenty-three. This time it sounds like the dishes Ianto left out earlier. Bloody Jack can only do chores at the worst times. 

Ianto waits four and a half minutes before his brain screams _tired but not tired enough!_ and he has to get up. He slowly slides off the bed, pulling the covers with him and shuffling out of the bedroom. The lights from the kitchen and living room, though dull, especially from the hallway, are still bright enough to make him squint and blink. He stumbles forward, blindly fumbling for the wall to keep him from walking into anything.

His eyes have adjusted more by the time he reaches the joint kitchen and living room, but he still keeps his eyes narrowed tight as he makes out Jack's form by the sink. Jack hasn't noticed him yet, and Ianto doesn't particularly feel like alerting him, so he just moves to sit on his sofa, instead. He sits down a bit hard by accident, but doesn't bother to stop himself from keeling over sideways onto the cushions, merely accepting his fate. Maybe he'll fall asleep there, instead. His neck will hurt like hell tomorrow, but at least he'll get some sleep. 

No such luck. He lounges there awkwardly for what feels like ages, only mildly aware of the sound of Jack scrubbing plates and mugs. Jack starts humming at one point. Ianto's not sure of the tune, but he's heard it before. Jack's hummed it once or twice to Ianto when Jack thought he was asleep. Sung it once, too, but it was rather evidently not in English, or any language from this planet or time. 

His sense of time, normally quite good, is clearly off at night, because before he knows it, Jack's figure is leaning over him.

"Did I wake you?" Jack asks quietly.

Ianto shakes his head, because he doesn't feel like talking out loud at the moment. Not at... two whatever-it-is in the morning.

"Let's get you back to bed," Jack says, gentler than velvet.

He helps Ianto, swathed in all his blankets, to sit back up, and plants a kiss on his forehead when he finishes standing. Ianto shambles back to the bedroom, Jack on his heels, looking for all the world like he is herding Ianto back, what with his hands spread out like that and all. It nearly makes Ianto laugh, because it's not like Ianto's about to make a break for it. Ianto turns around, just to see what Jack's reaction would be. He lets out a snort when Jack simply takes his arms, turns him back around, and walks him back to the bedroom. Jack has to navigate the trailing blankets and Ianto's drowsy, lumbering footsteps, so they dance about each other in a clumsy waltz. 

"You took all the blankets," Jack says in what is almost distress. Ianto rolls his eyes, because it's not as if the covers hadn't already been tugged out by Jack's thrashing about.

Jack plops unceremoniously down onto the bed, Ianto following with as much dignity as he can whilst swaddled in blankets. Jack jerks some of the blanket away, pulling it over his own body, before taking Ianto into his arms and pulling him in as well.

It's not long before Jack idly starts humming that otherworldly tune again and eases his fingers up and down the bare skin of Ianto's back. Ianto finds himself sinking into it, melting into the hold and the touch.

It wasn't always like this, Ianto recalls. Back before Jack left, they never spent the night together. Before Gray, they spent nights, but it was always shagging until they passed out. Now, it's different. Jack does his laundry and his dishes, Jack hums alien songs, Jack gives... gentle embrace things (for no amount of money will Ianto call it cuddling, or god forbid, as Jack once said, _canoodling_ ). Honestly, if someone had told Ianto two months ago that they'd be doing this, Ianto would have given them a perfectly arched eyebrow in scepticism. A year ago, he would have laughed. Because Jack's just not that kind of person. Not really, anyway. Not in the daylight. Then, he's all Captain Universe and his Ten Thousand-Megawatt Smile, the man who shags everything that can consent, the dashing hero. So this, here and now, is completely... well, ludicrous. Insane, even. 

Jack caresses a spot on Ianto's spine that feels so wonderful and pleasant that it distracts Ianto from his thoughts. Ianto shifts further into Jack's arms, surprising himself a little, because just as much as Jack doesn't seem like that kind of person, neither does Ianto. He never thought so, anyway.

It would seem it's too late for him to start having an existential crisis, because he starts dozing off as Jack continues to dance his fingers across his skin and lull him with his crooning.

His last thought is that this is so utterly _domestic_.

But when he wakes up to toast and eggs, and as Jack tells him about some random alien encounter on the way to work, and when Jack winks salaciously at him over Gwen's head after she makes a comment Jack interprets as lewd, and after the three of them catch an alien that reminds Jack of an ex-lover of his, Ianto thinks to himself how he rather likes that domesticity, and that he wouldn't change it for the world.

**Author's Note:**

> So, fun fact about myself: I used to hate writing in the present tense. Now, I can only write in the present tense, apparently. Odd.  
> Unedited.  
> Normally, I say, 'Thank's for reading! Have a nice day!' but this is a sleepy fic, so I'll say instead: Thank you for reading, and I'll bid you good night!

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Nighttime Waltz [Podfic]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22369126) by [Jackdaw816](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jackdaw816/pseuds/Jackdaw816)




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